root vegetable – daikan is the most traditional, but other types of radish, carrots, turnips, jicama, or the honorary root, kohlrabi, are great variations that afford the same crunch and additional flavor.

aromatics – garlic, ginger, scallion, and a semi-hot dried chili pepper. korean pepper is the most common of course, but i have found aleppo pepper to be a perfect substitute and since it’s ubiquitous in my kitchen that is what i use. if either are hard to find for you, mix hungarian (sweet) paprika equally with cayenne and you’ll approximate the level of heat. sugar is also added along with the aromatics.

brine – water and sea salt.

kimchi-making does not have to be exact. it’s best to taste as you go. here are the approximate ratios that i have found work best for me.

1/4 cup sea salt per quart of water for brine. (i use course sea salt, if yours is fine, it should be a scant 1/4 cup). note on water: chlorinated water can inhibit fermentation. it’s best to use spring or distilled water. approximately 3 quarts of brine are needed for every 5 pounds of cabbage & roots.

your special equipment doesn’t really need to be that special:

for every 5 pounds of cabbage & roots you will need a 1 gallon vessel (or 2 half gallons/4 quarts) for the fermentation process. i mostly use these 5 or 10 liter fermentation pots. also convenient to use and priced right are gallon or 1/2 gallon jars.

you’ll also need a few large bowls or containers to soak the vegetables overnight.

sometimes there’s a lot of hoopla around kimchi-making and fermentation in general. i don’t think it’s at all hard or mysterious. this is the basic technique:

clean and core cabbage, chop into approximately 1 to 1 & 1/2 inch pieces. clean roots and slice very thin. i like to use a mandoline for this.

make brine by combining salt and water. i make it in 1/2 gallon jars, shaking the jar until the salt dissolves.

soak the cabbage & roots overnight in brine (i usually need to use every big bowl in the house for this). fill the containers with cabbage & roots and press down. add some brine, cover with a plate and press down some more. add more brine as needed to submerge completely. keep plate on top overnight and let the whole lot sit out at room temperature. after 8-12 hours drain the cabbage & roots, reserving most of the brine.

chop up all of the aromatics and add sugar, mix together. combine this mixture with the drained cabbage and roots. if you are doing a large batch it is better to break it up into a few bowls to evenly combine.

fill your fermentation vessel/s with the mixture. do not pack it too high or too tight. 3/4 full is perfect. add some of the leftover brine to cover completely. you will not need all of the brine.

if you are using a crock with weights, place the weights on top of the mixture to submerge. if you are using glass jars, you could use the plastic bag method as i did here, but i have found that it really isn’t necessary, just cap the lid. here’s the caveat with that tho: as long as you check the kimchi once a day and push the vegetables back in the brine, or better yet give it a little stir, it will be good. if you cannot remember to do this daily then you better weight it down to keep everything submerged. i use the crocks now, with the weights, but pieces of cabbage always float to the top, so when making kimchi i give it a stir once a day and push the floaters back in. whenever small batching in a jar, i use a wooden spoon to stir once daily and forgo the plastic bag.

ideally the fermentation vessel will be in a moderately warm environment, low 70′s are perfect. at that temperature it will take approximately 3-6 days to complete fermentation. i just made my 2011 batch in this 90+ heatwave we are having here in the northeast. all was fine, and to my surprise it took a full 6 days to reach full fermentation – normally the hotter the temp, the faster the ferment.

taste! don’t be afraid to taste everyday! 2 or 3 days into it you will notice the bite of raw vegetable has dissipated. a day or two after, when you open the lid, you’ll smell the sweetest, most delicious smell. then you’ll know your nearing the end of the fermentation process. it’s really up to you and your taste buds to decide on when it is ‘done’. note: if something has gone wrong there is usually no question, your nose will know. it will smell bad. but this has never happened to me, and if you make sure your utensils, vessels and hands are clean it shouldn’t happen to you either.

transfer to storage jars and store in the fridge for up to a year or even more. technically speaking the fermentation process is still happening only at a much slower rate due to the lower temperature in your refrigerator. i keep my fridge at 38 degrees and i do not notice a change in my kimchi even after many months of storage.

water bath canning kimchi? i would never do it because those healthy little probiotic beasties inside a jar of kimchi are much better for us when they are alive. plus, the acidity is not high enough to safely hot water bath can, as in the case of sauerkraut which is fermented for a longer period.

every time i make kimchi it varies a bit. i use what i grow or what my neighboring farmers grow, that’s the fun of it! a little something different every time, but always delicious.

This is fantastic. I had my first kimchi experience (late to the party, I know) at a pickling/fermentation class a few weeks ago. And now with the kohlrabi coming in my weekly CSA – I know exactly what to do with it!

rcakewalk – i do eat the majority of it raw, but as you've noticed, i like to steam it in buns. in korea it is eaten raw and cooked. though i will still enjoy most of it raw, this year i plan to explore more of the traditional cooked ways, like kimchi soup.

what i meant about not changing so much was the texture, but now that i think of it, the flavor doesn't really change over time much either for me. i think it is because of the low temperature, 38 degrees is pretty low and the fermentation is severely halted.

Do I have to use napa cabbage, or can I use the regular green cabbage? I love kimchi, but I keep getting green cabbage from my CSA and need to use that up. Is it possible, or am I doomed to a life of saurkraut?

betseeee – you can follow the same process but shred the cabbage into very fine strips. you cannot chop regular green cabbage into squares as it won't soften enough. but I've used it shredded and it works perfectly.

I really want to try this and sauerkraut, but we live in a small house with cats. We also have turtles in our kitchen, in a tank well away from food prep areas. I can't figure out where to let fermenting foods sit, or whether I need to be worried about stray bacteria anymore than your average person.

I loved this! I go through a jar of kimcheed cucumbers every week but it has not gone so well when I tried it with cabbage. I will definitely be trying your recipe soon! Thanks for sharing! The garlic scapes make it sound amazing! I have never tried using them!

Tigress, I just discovered your blog, and love the one for kimchee. It's been years since I've made it, but I have to tell you I laughed out loud when I got to the part about not fearing to taste daily, and that it will keep for months (did you say 'a year'?) You see, when I made it, I'd taste it, just a sample, you know. And by the next day I HAD EATEN IT ALL! so much for keeping it any length of time. Of course, I didn't make as much as your recipe calls for, which is probably a good thing

Kimchi is my favorite Korean condiment. I devour tons of it every time I go out for Korean BBQ, but have always been terrified to try making it. Your recipe looks so great that I'll definitely conquer my fears. Thanks!!

I’m in the process of making kimchi from my home grown savoy cabbage and some carrots. I left the cabbage/carrot mix in the first brine for 24hrs so it had already started to get the ‘tang’ and once I mixed the aromatics in…. WOW! What a flavor! My mouth is watering just typing this Thanks so much for sharing!

it’s the scapes that grow from the top of a specific kind of garlic. they basically mirror what is happening underground at the same time. so during the summer you can cut them off the top of your garlic plant and in the early fall you can harvest the actual garlic as we know it. but don’t worry, use regular garlic if that is what you have!

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[...] Although I changed the recipe a fair bit it’s only fair to give a giant nod of the head to Tigress whose Kimchi Primer formed our starting point. I started with her because she’s a fellow chilehead and I knew [...]

[...] My technique is a combination of the sauerkraut recipe I mentioned before, and this very helpful kimchi primer. I use Tigress’ primer to feel out the proportions of ingredients I want to use, what size [...]

[...] in the batch they made. Since I used a rather mild kimchi, I added some aleppo pepper (an adequate substitution for korean peppers ordinarily used in kimchi). I also used shredded carrot instead of the [...]